


A Matter of the Heart

by writingsofa_hobbit



Category: The Hobbit, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:28:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingsofa_hobbit/pseuds/writingsofa_hobbit
Summary: The reader and Lindir are in love with each other, but they don't know it. One day, when Lindir plans to confess his feelings, the reader gets a spell cast on them, bringing her ever closer to death's cold, eternal grip. Little does Lindir know, his love is her only cure.





	A Matter of the Heart

The forest glowed with golden afternoon sunlight and it hummed with the chirps of birds and the rippling of the streams and rivers and even the roar of the waterfall in the distance. Wildflowers covered the ground, their sweet scent rising into the air as if preening themselves at the gentle caress of the sun’s kind rays. 

And while the sun called the beauty of the forest to life in its finals hours, Lindir meandered about the fields and trees, collecting floral specimens of mellow creams, brilliant whites, and beautiful yellows and assembled them into a beautiful bouquet. His eyes scanned the fields of flowers, comparing each and every bloom to the image of an elleth in his head. The elleth who’s beautiful E/C eyes shone brightly whenever he was around, who’s mellifluous laughter he had memorized, and whose heart and soul was filled with a kindness that made even the most bitter elves melt. And while he knew no flower would ever match the beauty of her soft curves or her H/C hair, it was impossible not to want to give her strictly the most beautiful flowers he could find, even if they only held a fraction of her elegance. Because today was special to him, and he wanted to make it special to her too. He was going to ask her to be his. 

Years had gone by and where Lindir and Y/N had been the best of friends and so many years had passed where Lindir’s feelings developed into more than friendship. They developed into love. 

Years had gone by where Lindir had loved Y/N with all of his heart and longed to give her everything. To give her the world. Every day, he’d try to show her his feelings with his kindness and care, and the occasional flower or book he thought she might enjoy. But she only ever took it as friendly favors, as if they didn’t have a deeper, more intimate meaning. 

For years Lindir had thought Y/N would never return his feelings, but he was tired of waiting around for something to happen between the two of them. With much-needed help from Lord Elrond, Lindir had finally gathered the courage to ask Y/N about her feelings towards him, and if she would allow herself to be loved by him. In other words, Lindir was finally asking Y/N for a date. 

It was only until the sun began to sink behind the mountains that Lindir decided he had arranged the flowers into a perfect and beautiful balance worthy of his love. And so, with the golden rays intensifying with the sun’s last grandeur, he made his way back to the creamy domes and walkways of Imladris. A nervousness built in his lungs, making his breaths shaky, and butterflies took flight in his stomach. But no matter what, Lindir would not lose his nerve. If it was not him who asked Y/N for her hand, then it would surely be some other ellon and Lindir would spend the rest of his life in regret and sadness. Y/N was his world, he was not going to let it slip from his grasp. 

Lindir stopped in front of the door he knew to be Y/N’s and knocked, preparing himself for complete euphoria or humiliation. No answer came from behind the dark oak door, and so Lindir knocked again, an uncomfortable pit growing in his heart. Still no answer. 

The ellon looked around as if she would appear from behind a corner, bringing the sun’s last light with her. Y/N never appeared, but, in place of her, another elf, one whom Lindir did not know well, rounded a corner. 

“Excuse me,” Lindir called as the other elf approached. It was another elleth, dressed in varying shades of violet and magenta. “Do you know where Y/N L/N might be?”

The elleth looked down at the flowers in his hand, then back up to his worry-struck face. 

“Y/N?” The elleth answered, eyebrow arching slightly, a small smirk gracing her lips. Suddenly it struck him that the woman in front of him was the one that Y/N despised for her cruelty towards other elleths, including Y/N. Especially Y/N. “Haven’t you heard? The little nuisance came back from the woods unconscious. She’s in the hospital wing now. It’s a useless racket, really.”  
Lindir became a mesh of shock, irritation, and fear. If Y/N was in the hospital wing, it meant she was in danger, not safe and happy as Lindir could have kept her. 

“You better get going if you want to catch her alive, lover boy,” the elleth snickered. “I heard she was close to death. She’ll probably die if they don’t figure out what’s wrong with her.”

Lindir glared down at the elleth, muttered a spiteful thank you, and took off in the direction of the medical wing. Worry filled his mind at the thought of Y/N’s condition. And although Lindir didn’t want to give in to the woman’s taunts, the prospect of Y/N’s lifeless body brought tears to his baby blue eyes. Lindir would never have gotten to kiss her lovely lips while they were warm and full of life and color. He would have never gotten to lay with her in his arms, a hand carding through the softness of her hair. He would have never gotten to tell her the true feelings of his heart and he would have never gotten to tell her the words that crossed his mind a thousand times each day. I love you. 

Lindir entered the medical ward and immediately saw the cluster of doctors, nurses and even Lord Elrond hovering around a single patient’s bed. Lindir rushed over to Lord Elrond, his eyes finding the sleeping face of Y/N. Even near to death, her face glowed like the babbling brooks in the moonlight and her eyelashes cast miniscule shadows upon her rounded cheeks in the most elegant fashion. Even near to death, Y/N was downright gorgeous.   
Tears filled Lindir’s eyes as the question the group was thinking escaped his lips. 

“What happened to her?” Lindir asked, his voice quivering softly. 

Lord Elrond placed a hand on his shoulder, his stone-grey eyes full of pity as they met Lindir’s. 

“She was found in the forest, unconscious. We don’t know what happened to her, or how she got in this state,” Elrond’s solemn voice explained. 

“Is it true that she could die?” Lindir asked, his anxiousness pushing the daunting question from his mind to his lips. 

Elrond’s eyes dropped to the floor, and his head turned away from Lindir. 

“I know today was supposed to be special, mellon,” Elrond sympathized. 

“She is going to die, isn’t she?” Lindir asked, the indirectness of Elrond’s answer giving away the truth, despite Elrond’s words of indirect kindness. A single tear began its descent as he turned his gaze back to Y/N’s beautiful but doomed face.

“Yes,” Elrond’s words were soft and full of dread, “the chances of her death are rather favorable.”

A slight sob escaped his lips, shaking his shoulders as it did so. She was dying. Y/N, the love of his life, was dying and there was nothing he could ever do about it. He could never love her the way he had always wanted to.

“Well, if there’s nothing that can be done for her,” Lindir began, wanting to spend what remained of her time with her so she would not be lonely when she passed, “may I stay with her for a little, alone?”

The doctors and nurses all looked to Elrond for an answer, knowing full well this was no longer a matter of the physical, but rather a matter of the heart.   
“Let him stay,” Elrond ordered with somber ease and melancholy. “These are the last moments he’ll have with the woman he loves. Give him a chance to say goodbye.”

Somehow, the words gave Lindir some solace while simultaneously making the harsh reality of the situation become more real in his head. He was losing her, for good.

And so it was with teary eyes that Lindir nodded gratefully to his lord, the smallest smile of gratitude across his features. The doctors and nurses then left the bedside as he turned back to Y/N’s pale form. Her sweet face showed signs of physical stress and her hands trembled slightly with weakening nerves.

“Oh, Y/N,” Lindir sighed with a sniffle as he set the little bundle of flowers down on the table beside the bed, “why didn’t I tell you sooner?”

His hand brushed over her hair. Impossibly soft, he thought, maybe even softer, if the Valar truly are this cruel. The backs of his long fingers trailed over her paling cheek while his own became wet with the plethora of tears that had begun to fall as a result of his breaking heart. 

And with one final twist of his heart, he leaned down, pressed a kiss to her cold cheek and another one to her forehead before he rested his own head against hers and let his love for the dying elleth before him pour itself down his cheeks and onto her silken skin. 

“I love you, Y/N.” Lindir lamented, his voice cracking and his entire body shaking as he pulled back from the only moment in which he would bestow a kiss upon the one he loved. He buried his face in his hands and finally let himself weep. 

But little did he know, as he wept, those three sweet words he had spoken against the curve of Y/N’s had changed the course of her ailment. A rosy hue began to replace the shallow, purplish one on her cheeks and the very essence of her loving and lively spirit began to rush through her veins once more.

And when Lindir had truly begun to realize what Y/N’s death might’ve meant, a warm hand brushed against his arm and a weak voice spoke his name. 

“Lindir?” Y/N questioned, her voice shaking.

Lindir’s ears perked up and his eyes instantly shot up from his wet palms and found Y/N’s twinkling E/C irises. 

“Y-you’re alive?” Lindir mumbled in astonishment. His mind scrambled to make sense of what was happening, his soul rushing to find the pieces of his broken heart. And finally a smile surfaced and tears of happiness filled Lindir’s eyes.

“Y/N!” Lindir laughed. “Oh, thank the Valar! You’re alive!” 

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lindir wrapped his arms around Y/N’s weak form and pulled her close to him as he buried his head in the hair that tumbled over her shoulder. Happiness filled his heart once more. She was alive. She was alive and breathing and hugging him back. 

But then she shuddered and a weak sniffle sounded throughout the otherwise silent room. 

“Y/N?” Lindir asked, pulling out of their embrace only to find tears in Y/N’s eyes. “Y/N are you okay?”

“I’m so sorry,” Y/N sniffled. “I didn’t know.”

“Hey,” Lindir murmured sweetly, eyebrows scrunched together as he hopped up onto the bed beside the sniffling elleth and gathered her shaking form into his lap and held her close to him as he tried to comfort her. “Oh, Y/N. There’s no need to cry. You’re okay. I’m right here, Y/N. It’s going to be okay.”

“No,” Y/N murmured, her delicate fingers grasping onto the front of Lindir’s navy blue tunic like he was the only thing keeping her grounded. “Lindir, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“How is any of this your fault?” Lindir asked confusion and longing lingered in his eyes as Lindir combed his fingers through her slightly tangled locks and his fingers ran little circles about her skin to comfort her.”

“The witch. I disagreed with her and I almost hurt you.”

“What?” Lindir asked with a twinge of humor in his voice as he continued to comfort the elleth he loved with all his heart. He pulled out of their temporary advice so that she would look up at him and he could dry her tears. “Just calm down and tell me what happened. I promise you’re safe now, okay? Just tell me what happened?”

“Well, I was in the woods,” Y/N sniffled, her gaze dipping to her hands as the worked to release all the stress from her body by wringing her hands and taking deep, shuddering breaths, “and this witch appeared and said she could help me with a problem I’ve had for a while now.”

“What problem? You’re too sweet to have any problems” Lindir teased as he tried to quell the tension clearly plaguing Y/N’s mind.

“Thanks, but you don’t understand,” Y/N said. “ The witch said she could help me find love.”

“Oh,” Lindir sighed, his heart dropping slightly. I’ve already lost her, haven’t I? 

Y/N reached for Lindir’s hand and in his worry Lindir laced his fingers with hers, thinking it would be the last time he’d get to hold her hand as she curled into his chest before continuing. 

“She said that the one I love already loved me back and that she could make him love me.” Y/N murmured, squeezing Lindir’s hand gradually as her tears began to build up again. “She said she could make him confess his love for me, but I denied that he would ever love me beyond the love we already had for each other, the love between friends. Next thing I know, everything was black and I knew I was dying but I couldn’t wake up and I couldn’t move or do anything to stop it. All I could do was think and I just kept thinking of how my death would hurt you and how I would never get to tell you I love you.”

It was then that Y/N began to break down again. The tears and the sobs came again, this time with tenfold the strength of the first bout of tears. Lindir hugged her closer, as Y/N’s sniffles became the only sound between the two as Lindir’s mind worked silently to work out what Y/N had just said. Y/N had been lost on an unknown bridge between life and death with no way to get back what she was losing and no way to get back to the one she loved. She was lost with no way to get back to him. 

“Y-you love me?” Lindir asked, a smile illuminating his features and absolute happiness filling his heart and soul. 

“Yes, Lindir,” Y/N confessed through her sobs, her voice quiet, her fears filling her voice as she silently pleaded with the Valar, with the stars… with him. “I’ve loved you for decades, but I never thought you loved me back.” 

Lindir looked down at the sniffling elleth in his arms. Oh, he thought, his gaze caressing her sweet features in the way he wished his hands could, she’s magnificent. 

And, at that moment, he decided. He was no longer going to let them both suffer. So, he disentangled his hand from hers and delicately lifted her face from his chest so that her gaze met his and he pressed his lips to hers with the force of forty thousand gales and the delicacy of the sun’s sweet rays as it begins to peak out from behind its bed in the rocky mountain peaks. 

Lindir was lost in awe as the world seemed to slow and everything but the two of them ceased to exist. Y/N’s lips were sweet against his own. They enveloped his in a warmth so comforting he knew he would cherish forever. Y/N was soft and delicate, vulnerable, sweet and strong and everything he wanted. He wanted her by his side, forever and always, and the thought of her wanting him and loving him the same flooded his mind with hope and his eyes with tears. 

Finally, when the time came for their lips to part and the world to resume, Lindir smiled at the glistening hope he saw reflected in Y/N’s eyes and the beginnings of a smile brighter than all of Varda’s stars upon the lips he knew he would love forever.

“Wow,” Lindir laughed breathlessly. 

“Yeah,” Y/N whispered. “Wow.”

Then in a moment of pure passion, Lindir kissed every inch of the sweet tasting skin of Y/N’s face and reveled in the sweet ringing of her laughter as it filled the room. 

“I love you too, Y/N,” Lindir laughed breathlessly, “I love you with all of myself. I always have and I always will. I promise.”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Lindir exclaimed, reaching behind him to grab the bundle of flowers he had left upon the bedside table. He took one, the one with the velvet-like petals that he had placed in the middle because of its overwhelming beauty, and brushed tendrils of Y/N’s beautiful hair behind her ear so he could tuck the stem of the yellow bloom behind her ear as well. He then took Y/N’s hand, pushed the bundle of stems into her grasp and watched as her gaze lit up with happiness and love.

“I got these for you,” Lindir said. “I was going to give them to you, but then, well, this happened.”

And the next he knew, Y/N’s lips were pressed to against his again, this time with her arms around his neck and his around the dips in her waist, both pressed into the wall with the force with which Y/N had kissed him. Tears simultaneously began to fall as the two kissed each other with all the pent-up love they had stored for decades. And when they parted, the pair began to laugh at what fools they had both been. 

“I love you, Y/N.”

“I love you too, Lindir.”


End file.
